BOSTON - Senior Jimmy O'Connell collected a career-high eight points on three goals and a career-best five assists to help lead the No. 15/18 Boston University men's lacrosse team to a 14-12 win over Colgate on Friday night at Nickerson Field.

BU (10-4, 6-2 PL) clinched the No. 2 seed in the Patriot League Tournament and will await the highest remaining seed from the quarterfinal round for a semifinal matchup scheduled for Friday, May 2, at 7 p.m., at top-seeded Army West Point. 

The Terriers trailed Colgate (7-7, 4-4 PL) by three, 8-5, with 3:50 remaining in the first half, but the Terriers scored twice before the break to make it an 8-7 deficit at halftime. Colgate scored first out of the restart, but BU ended the third quarter on a 5-0 run to take a 12-9 lead and put the game out of reach. BU eventually led, 14-10, before two late Raider goals made the score close.

Junior Jimmy Kohr (2g) and freshman Timothy Shannehan (3g, 1a) were electric at attack alongside O'Connell while sophomore Tyler Fox (2g), freshman Andrew Pape (2g, 1a) and senior Brenden Kelly (1g, 2a) were clutch out of the midfield. Freshman Ben Morris also found the back of the net while senior Zach Travaglini provided an assist. All four of Shannehan's points came in the third quarter as he sparked that decisive run.

Defensively, junior Connor Kehm had another outstanding game for BU, leading the Terriers with four caused turnovers and adding three ground balls. He was part of a Terrier ride that forced eight failed clears and was also key in the BU clearing game. Senior Trey Brown was one of nine different Terriers to record a caused turnover, totaling two caused turnovers and two ground balls, Senior goalkeeper Will Barnes made 14 saves in another great effort in the cage while also forcing a turnover and gathering two ground balls. Freshman Madden Murphy won a career-best 16 of the 24 draws he took and won a career-high six ground balls in an outstanding effort at the faceoff X.

BU honored its 11 seniors - Barnes, Brown, Kelly, O'Connell, Travaglini, Michael Allieri, Matt Caccese, Benjamin Ferraa, Matthew Fritz, Stephen Gaskill III and Colby Kim - prior to opening faceoff.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The teams traded goals to start the ame, with BU twice answering a Colgate goal to bring the game to 2-2 with 6:23 left in the opening quarter.
• Kohr gave the Terriers' their first lead of the night with 4:51 on the clock off a nifty BTB goal, but the Raiders responded with 2:10 to go to even the score at 3-3.
• Colgate scored twice in a span of 32 seconds to take a 5-3 lead with 13:20 left in the second quarter.
• BU battled back with two goals of its own in a 43-second stretch, starting with an O'Connell strike at the doorstep off a nice cross-crease feed by Kelly.
• Fox then notched his second goal of the day off an assist from Pape to tie the score at 5-5.
• Three straight Colgate goals made it an 8-5 game with 3:50 to go in the opening half, but a man-up goal from Pape and a nice O'Connell goal out of a timeout made it a one-goal contest at the break.
• Ryan Favaro pushed the Colgate lead to 9-7 just 1:58 into the second half, but BU took over the game from there.
• Shannehan made it 9-8 at 10:06, and after a faceoff win, Shannehan worked it to O'Connell at the crease for an equalizer.
• Murphy then popped a faceoff win forward and got the ball to Kohr, who quickly dished to O'Connell who one-touched it across the crease to Shannehan for a go-ahead strike just 10 seconds after the Terriers tied the game.
• Kohr scored with 6:16 left in the third before Shannehan completed his hat trick with 1:23 to play in the frame.
• Colgate opened the fourth quarter with a goal at 11:55 to make it a thre-goal game, but Morris and Kelly both found the back of the net to push the lead to 14-10 with 5:05 remaining in regulation.
• Two unassisted efforts by Rory Connor in the final minute gave Colgate some hope but the Terriers closed out the win.

GAME NOTES

• BU will play in the Patriot League semifinals for the fourth straight year.
• The Terriers have won 10 games in four straight years and in six of the last seven full seasons.
• This is the first time the Terriers have been the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament.
• O'Connell leads BU in points (61) and assists (30) while Kohr paces the Terriers with 39 goals.
• This is the 10th time a Terrier has recorded 60+ points in a season, with O'Connell becoming the sixth different Terrier to reach that milestone.
• BU has boasted a 60-point producer in each of the last six full seasons (excluding 2020 and 2021).
• Kehm now leads the Terriers with 29 caused turnovers and 49 ground balls.
• Barnes has averaged 15.67 saves over his last three starts.

UP NEXT

• BU will face the highest remaining seed in the Patriot League semifinals on Friday, May 2, at Army West Point.
• The Terriers will play in the second semifinal of the day, scheduled for 7 p.m.
• All three games from championship weekend will be nationally televised on CBS Sports Network.